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Bulletin No. 57 MHS 32, October 30, 1921. 


COMMON.:E..LTH OF PENNSYLVANT.. 


DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAD JFPEAIRS 
James IT, Woodward, Secretary 


BURE.LU OF TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
George H. Ashicy, State Geolorist 


COAL BEDS IN BEAVER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANTA 
By 
Je D. Sisler 


introduction, 


Beaver County is one of the smallest producers of bituminous 
coal in Pennsylvanians Although the county contains six conl becs that 
are locally valuable, they vary in thickness and quality, and their 
mineable areas are small. At least two beds of clay associated with 
the coal beds are so useful that they ereatly increase the value of 
the overlying coal, 


‘In 1918 Beaver County produced 128 572 tons of coal, valued at 
$342,050. Of this amount 98,041 tons were londed 2t the mines for 
shipment; 29,567 tons were sola to local trade and used by employces; 
964 tons were used at the mines for steam and heat. None of the coal 
was made into cole at the mines. 


Beaver County is on the west boundary of the State between 
Lawrence and Washington Baek iss Its createst width from north to 
south is 27% miles and from east to west is 204 miles. Its area is 
429 square miles, The population in 1920 was 111,621. 


Beaver County has ample transportation facilities to any point 
for its coal and industrial products, The Pennsylvania Railroad and 
the Pittsbureh and Lake Erie Railroad follow the Beaver and Ohio 
rivers; the Baltimore and Ohio crosses the northeastern part of the 
county. 


The river valleys are densely BonEHERe, and have many miles of 
improved roads, over which much coal for loeal consumption is hauled. 


Barges on Ohio River annually transport larre quantities of coal 
from the southern part of the county, 


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Ohio and Beaver rivers, and their major tributaries flow throush 
@eep valleys. The slopes are abrupt at their base excent where 
meandering streams have worn back their valleys, and formed broad 
flood plains. The slopes are more sentle on the water sheds. The 
rivers flow on transported elacial drift. The larger valleys have a 
series of five terraces on their slopes. Numerous hills and ridges 
with steep slopes and deep gsulleys at their base are flat-topped and 
suggest the remnants of an old peneplain. A rise of about 500 feet 
to the northwest restricts the Pitisburch coal to 2 few hilltops in 
the southern part of the county, brings the .llecsheny coals to out- 
crop alone the Ohio, and even exposes the Pottsville formation alone 
the Beaver, 


STRATIGRAPHY. 
The Carmichaels formation, composed of clays, sands and eravels, 
occupies the old river channels. 


The Monongahela formation is restricted to a few hills in the 
southern part of the county. The upper part of the formation has 
been eroded until only 50 feet of sandstones and shales remain above 
the Pittsburgh coal. 


The Conemaugh formation is largely composed of shales, with a 
few thin limestones and sandstones. The coals are thin and unimport- 
ant. Its average thickness is about 625 feet. 


The Allegheny formation has a large area in the county and 
contains workable coals. It averages about 325 feet thick end is 
composed of sandstones, shales, limestones, and valuable coal and 
clay beds, 


The Pottsville is the lowest formation exposed in the county. 
It is composed chiefly of a massive sandstone and shales, and its 
coals are of little value, 


COAL BEDS. 


Brookville ("4") Coal. § This coal has a limited outcrop in the 
county, It has been mined at the mouth of Brady Run, where it is 33 
inches thick, with only 6 inches of clean coal.’ Along Beaver River 
the bed is in two benches 14 and 7 inches thick, separated by 3 feet 
of shale. In other parts of the county the coal is either below 
@rainage or covered with glacial drift. 


Clarion ("A'") Coal. This coal is persistent in the county, 
but averages less than 6 inches thick. 


Scruberass Coal, This bed is thin but persistent. The maximum 
thickness is 18 inches on the Connoquenessing, but at all other 
localities it is much less, The coal has good quality. 


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Lower Kittanning {"B") Coal. This bed ranges from 14 inches to 
2 feet inches thick, averaging about 2 feet, It is lenticular and 
high in sulphur, particularly so east of Beaver River, where it is 
known as the "sulphur vein." The Lower Kittanning is 2 feet 6 inches 
thick on North Branch of Brady Run, where its quality is excellent 
and has been used for blacksmithing purposes, On Blockhouse Run the 
coal is 18 inches thick, and high’in sulphur, South of Phillis Island 
the bed is 2 feet 11 inches thick, including 2 inches of shale 6 
inches above the bottom. At Monaca the bed is 2 feet thick, but the 
upper haif is very bony. 


A bed of excellent clay underlying the coal adds great commereial 
importance to that horizon, The coal can be mined profitably only in 
conjunction with the clay. 


Middle Kittanning ("C") Coal. This bed, lying about 35 feet 
above the wer Kittanning coal, although persistent, is exceedingly 
variable in thickness, In the area along Ohio River west of Dam No. 6 
the bed is usually between 14 and 26 inches thick, free from partings © 
and apparently improves in quality and increases in thickness westward. 
On both sides of the river in the vicinity of Georgetown it is 2 feet 
to 2 feet 6 inches thick, and is an excellent block coal. It has 
been opened for local fuel. 


The Middle Kittanning coal is 4 inches thick at Vanport; from 2 
feet 6 inches to 3 feet thick at the mouth of Mill Creek. On North 
Branch of Brady Run it is 16 inches thick, including 6 inches of shale 
3 inches above the bottom; south of St. Clair the bed ranges from 14 
to 20 inches thick. 


East of Beaver and Ohio rivers the coal is generally uniform in 
thickness, of fair quality, and free from partings. It ranges from 
14 to 20 inches thick, 


Upper Kittanning ("C'") Coal. This bed is thin and unimportant 
in the county, seldom being over 6 to 8 inches’thick. On Brush Run, 


however, a coal, possibly the Upper Kittanning, has been mined 
lecally and is reported to be 4 feet thick, including 6 to 12 inches 
of parting. 


The Upper Kittanning in Beaver County is locally cannel coal, 

At Cannelton the bed-‘is almost entirely cannel coal, having a maximum 
thickness of 13 feet, and averaging 7:‘to 8 feet. It fills a race- 
track-like trough about 300 feet wide, extending around an oval 2 
Miles long by 1 mile wide. Bituminous coal is 1 foot thick in the 
center of this basin, but thins to 4 inches at the edge. 


Lower Freeport ("DD") Coal, This bed, lying about 60 feet below 
the Upper Freeport coal, is thin in the county, having an average 
thiokness of 15 inches, Although locally it is much thicker, it is 
also lacking in many localities. It is bony and impure where mined. - 
In the vicinity of Baden it is 2 feet 6 inches thick. On Trough Run, 
opposite Beaver Falls the bed is an impure cannel-coal 4 feet thick. 
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Island Riun-and Brush Run, the Goal is good and regular, Its thick- 
ness ranges from 1. to 30 inches. 


Upper Freeport ("NE") Coal, This bed is the most important 


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Ree UR en here than in adjoining counties, It is persistent, and 
ranges from 6 inches to 5 feet thick. Where thickest it has 6 to 8 
inches of impure, shaly top coal, and the main bench of good coal is 
2 feet 5 inches to 3 feet thick. Im the northern part of the county 
it is 4 to 5 feet thick where not removed by erosion, ‘The Upper 
Irreeport coal has been mined extensively in the western part of the 
county and shipped as a gas coal. It has a persistent thickness of 
4 feet 6 inches, and is divided into four benches by thin shale 
partings. The bottom and top benches are impure and worthless, The 
main bench is good coal, averaging 3 feet thick. The areas of this 
thick coal in this vicinity are small, and the coal is high in 
sulphur, The thickness diminishes northward, but the coal is purer, 
In the region east of the Beaver and north of the Ohio, the bed is 
thin, averaging about 17 inches thick, and is separated by many 
partings. 


south of Ohio River and east of Raccoon Creek the coal locally 
is fairly thick but is much parted with bone and shale. Near the 
mouths of Logtown, Elkhorn, and Moon runs the coal is thin, but the 
bed has been opened at many places for domestic fuel on their head- 
waters, and averages 2 feet 2 inches thick, 


The Upper Freeport coal is lenticular south of Ohio River and 
west of Raccoon Creek, ranging from 16 inches to nearly 7 feet in 
thickness, It carries several bone partings, but the benches are 
thicker than in the region north,’and tend to overcome this dis- 
advantage, On Squirrel, Pish Pot, and Island runs, and Service Creek 
the coal is separated by partings thick:enough to make it a "split’ 
bed, On Raccoon Creek the coal’is thin, but clean and excellent, 
Its average thickness is 2 feet, but locally it is lenticular, and 
reaches a maximum of 3 feet. 


Brush Creek Coal, This ea lying about 95 feet above the 
Upper Freeport, is mined only for house coal. In few places it is 
more than 20 inches thick, and averages much less. It is generally 
represented by a few feet of bituminous shale, 


Pittsburgh Coal, A few hilltops in the southeastern part of 
the county contain this bed, ’and it has been opened on all of them. 
The coal is under thin cover, has been leached and weathered, and 
does:not have its usual good quality, It is 5 to 6 feet thick, and 
is divided into four distinct benches by shale partings. 


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30112 077640701 


